Four States Put Gun Measures Before Voters on Tuesday

What happened

Voters in four states will decide gun-related ballot measures this election, The Trace reported in a survey by Jennifer Mascia. Massachusetts voters will decide whether to keep sweeping restrictions passed in 2024. Residents of Arkansas, Colorado and Idaho will consider pro-gun measures. According to The Trace, all four measures on the ballot this midterm cycle aim to expand gun rights. The Trace’s full article explains the Arkansas and Colorado measures.

According to The Trace, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey signed House Bill 4885 in June 2024. The law regulates unserialized “ghost guns” and bans machine gun conversion devices. It also expanded the state’s red flag law. CBS Boston reported that on Question 9, a yes vote keeps the law and a no vote repeals it. The station also reported that the law tightened rules on assault-style weapons and required an electronic system for registering guns. Axios Boston reported that repeal would leave most of the state’s older rules in place, including licensing and safety training.

WBUR reported that the repeal campaign says the law hurts hunting traditions and puts heavy training requirements and costs on legal gun owners. The campaign also calls the law confusing. Supporters say it makes Massachusetts safer. Speaking for the repeal side, Toby Leary told CBS Boston that the state already had the strictest gun laws in the nation and that the new law is trying to “scare people.” The Massachusetts nonprofit newsroom CommonWealth reported that Smith & Wesson and the Gun Owners’ Action League back the repeal. The outlet also cited a 2026 JAMA Health Forum study that linked red flag laws like the one in Massachusetts to fewer suicides.

In Idaho, WDIV’s ClickOnDetroit reported, the Legislature put a nonbinding question on the ballot asking voters whether to name a state gun. The Trace noted that gun violence prevention advocates have long used ballot initiatives to take reforms directly to voters. None reached the ballot in 2024. A 2022 Oregon measure requiring permits and training to buy a gun passed narrowly, but it is still tied up in court and has not taken effect.

Our reflection

A ballot question about serial numbers and registration portals sounds dry. It isn’t dry to the people reading it. Some readers have stood in a hospital hallway waiting to hear about a son. Others carry a gun because they were once defenseless and swore it would not happen again. Both are afraid, and both are voting.

Here is the part we would rather skip. Many of us treat the gun question like a team jersey. We guard our side’s talking points more carefully than we guard other people’s children. And when the headline comes about another 15-year-old, too many of us just keep scrolling. That numbness is sin too. It may be quieter than the trigger, but it is still a heart out of line with God.

Luke tells us that as Jesus came near Jerusalem, he looked at the city and wept. That is the same city that would cheer him that week and then call for his death. He did not weep for a faction. He wept because they could not see what makes for peace, and the peace standing in front of them was him. Followers of Jesus will mark Question 9 differently in good faith, and they should do it with patience and gentleness toward each other. What we cannot do is stop weeping, or treat a vote as the whole of our obedience.

Laws matter. A law still cannot sit across from a young man the night after his cousin is shot, when everyone in the room knows what is supposed to happen next. People do that. Our Juvenile Community Violence Intervention work tries to reach young people at first contact, before there is a record, and to stay with them through re-entry. It is slow, and it never shows up in a campaign ad. It also keeps going on Wednesday morning, whichever way Tuesday’s count goes.

So read the full text of the question on your ballot, not the mailer, and mark it as your conscience leads. Then give your Wednesday to the work that saves lives between elections.

If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.

Luke 19:42

Source: The Trace, “Guns Are on the Ballot in Four States”